


not a pretty thing

by fullmoontonightt



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Earth AU, F/M, Grounder Clarke Griffin, Slow Build, Trust Issues, but dont worry they will be all lovey-dovey, canon inspired, i dont know how to tag this, i want this to not be too romance focused, let's just say grounder clarke comes into camp and shit happens??
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-06-02 00:43:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6543535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullmoontonightt/pseuds/fullmoontonightt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>He steps forward, now standing so close to the girl his men captured that he has to look down to look into her eyes. To his surprise she doesn’t try to step back but instead faces him with a rage in her eyes.  “I know you can understand me, you know?”</em>
</p><p>  <em>The girl,  he has to give her credit for it, still doesn’t respond. She does swallow, the challenge in her eyes dampening slightly. Bellamy huffs out a breath, somewhat pleased, and turns around in order to leave.</em></p><p>  <em>“Clarke.” He hears the girl say from behind him.  “My name's Clarke.”</em><br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Bellamy nodded absently and made some agreeing sounds and hums in Atom’s direction, hoping the other guy would shut up soon. Bellamy doesn’t even remember what exactly Atom had been complaining about, only that it was petty and completely irrelevant to the future of the camp.

“Bellamy!” Miller yelled from across the field. “You need to come check this out!”

Bellamy excused himself from the conversation with Atom, trying to hide his relief, and turned around to Miller with a grateful smile. It however quickly fell from his lips as he saw the seriousness in Miller’s expression. His second in command looked less than joyful about whatever he was about to report, his grip tight on his gun in a way that usually indicates that something bad is going on. Bellamy fastened his pace.

“What’s wrong?” He grunted out once he’d reached Miller, his mood having darkened.

Miller looked over at Bellamy, visibly struggling to find the right words as they walked towards the camp’s borders. “We found something..uh someone.”

Bellamy felt his left brow arch upwards. “Someone?”

That’s when he heard the faint screaming in a foreign language coming from just outside their improvised gate. Bellamy felt his frown deepen as he recognized the voice as a female one. He turned to Miller and hissed. “You took a grounder?”

“Not exactly. We don’t know where’s she’s from.”

She, turned out be a short girl, blonde hair flaring around her as she tried to struggle her way out of Murphy’s arms. Foreign angry spoken words falling from her lips. Bellamy felt something inside him tighten as he looked at her. Her face was covered with spots of dirt and something that looked a lot like blood. As he approached she looked up, her piercing blue eyes staring at him with an intensity that made his stomach curl. Bellamy swallowed and looked down, breaking the eye contact.

He leaned towards Miller, making sure to keep his voice soft. “Where did you find her?”

“In the woods, not too far away actually.” Miller looked up at him, a grimace in place. “She was just.. there, all alone. We tried talking to her, wanting to help, but she straight up attacked us.”

Bellamy’s frown deepened, the whole situation just seemed off to him. Where would she have come from? And why would she attack his men? He looked back up at the girl his people had captured, hoping to be able to study her, but instead saw how she smacked her shoulder against Murphy’s chest and kicked Finn’s feet at the same time, therefore freeing herself of their grip. Within seconds, she’d taken off back into the forest.

Bellamy threw his gun over his back via its belonging strap and ran after her without thinking. His feet stumbled over the uneven ground as he caught up with her. She was fast, he had to give her that, but she slipped on the leaves that covered the forest floor, allowing Bellamy to grab hold of her wrist and pull her towards him. He looks at her, feeling a satisfied grin come in place. “Not so fast, princess.”

She just looks up at him with rage in her eyes and he shrugs before strengthening his hold on her and guiding her back to camp, where Finn grabs a solid hold on her before leading her to one of the currently empty rooms in the drop ship.

Bellamy can’t help but look as Collins takes her away, at how she keeps her head high, not giving Collins the slightest chance to think he’s the superior one in their situation. Bellamy feels his lips arch upwards at the sight.

He looks over at Miller and the other guards that are surrounding him and clears his throat. “Let’s keep this quiet for now.”

\---

“So tell me what happened.” Bellamy says to Miller as they sit down on the rough wooden benches they’d carved out of logs near one of the camp’s tunnels. The benches are positioned in between two camp buildings, creating a sense of privacy in the open space.

“I don’t know Bellamy, it was weird. Really weird.” Miller meets Bellamy’s gaze with a sense of frustration in his eyes.

“We were doing our rounds when we found her, she was walking right in our hunting territory, near that clearing where we found that mountain lion that one time.” Bellamy nodded in recognition. “She looked.. beaten, weak as if she’d been walking for days. Covered in dirt.”

Miller sighs before continuing. “We decided to approach her, wanting to know what she was doing on our lands. She seemed afraid of us at first..but once we got close enough she just launched at us. She managed to hit Dax hard too, knocked him down.”

Bellamy can’t help the grin that forms on his face and he can see Miller’s cracking a smile too. Dax’s always been incredibly confident in his strength. A girl knocking him down is something Bellamy regrets to have missed.

“So yeah, we managed to overpower her and decided it would be best to bring her here. Figured you’d want a say in what we did with her.”

Bellamy nods, a million questions filling his mind. Who is this girl? If she’d indeed been walking for days on end, why would she attack the first people she finds? That just doesn’t make sense. That and the fact the was out there all alone, it’s just all a bit too suspicious for his liking. Because why would she be alone? Grounders never leave their clan alone.

Bellamy looks up from his thoughts, remembering something Miller had said earlier. “Wait Miller, what did you mean before, when you said you guys weren’t sure she’s a grounder?”

“Well,” Miller turns to look at him, “she doesn’t look like one for starters. But I really guessed she wasn’t one because she looked at us with this..unfamiliarity. Like she’d never seen one of the sky people before.”

“So?”

“So even the most hidden away grounder clans know us by now, have heard of us, met us even. Even if she’d never been outside of her camp before, she’d at least have heard stories about us right?”

Bellamy nods with a grunt, recognizing the truth in that. After a rough start they’d now somehow worked out a deal with the grounders. They both kept to their own territories and no one would get hurt. Every grounder should know that, would know that, unless...

“She’s an outcast.” Bellamy says.

Miller looks up at that, surprise visible in his eyes. “You think so?”

“Well,” Bellamy shrugs, “it would make sense. Think about it. We find this girl all by herself in the forest, not a single soul around her. You say she looked at you guys like she’d never seen or heard about us before, so she must not have been in a grounder clan for a long time.”

“Yeah but we’ve been here for over a year now Bellamy, we’ve made pacts with multiple grounder clans in that time, how long must she have been an outcast for then? How would she have managed to survive a year by herself?” Miller looks at him with doubt. “I mean, she looked weak Bellamy, as if she was going to faint any moment. That’s not what someone that survives on their own looks like.”

Bellamy sighs, defeated. “I guess you’re right. But what else could she be?”

Miller shrugs helplessly, looking as confused as Bellamy feels. They sit in silence, watching their people work, frustration filling up their minds.

Bellamy casts a sideways look Miller’s way as he thinks of the only thing that really matters about their new guest. “Do you think she’s dangerous?”

Miller looks down at that, tilting his head slightly as he considers his answer. “No, I don’t think she’s a real threat. But I wouldn’t trust her either. Something is up with that girl.”

Bellamy couldn’t help but agree, something is definitely up with her. He itches to find out what it is.

\---

It’s two hours later that Bellamy finally has time to go see the girl, the small unnecessary problems of the delinquents had taken up most of his day, tiring him in an extreme way. With a grunt he throws his gun on the drop ship floor, sending a hand to massage his aching shoulder.

That doesn’t mean he hasn’t had time to think about the mystery girl. Hell, she’d barely left his mind. Bellamy can’t stand not knowing things like this. He needs to know who she is, what she’s doing here and most importantly if she’s a threat to his people.

He looks up to see Murphy staring at him, raising an inquisitive brow. Bellamy decides to ignore it but does lower his hand, in favor of folding his arms over each other. He motions to the room they’d been keeping the girl in. “Any news on her?”

Murphy shakes his head. “We haven’t really had the chance to find out much, every time me or Finn try to enter the room she throws stuff at us.”

Bellamy tries to hide his amusement at that mental image and nods. “Then I’ll go try and talk to her.”

“Do you think she’ll understand you then?” A young, dark-haired boy pipes up, making a good point. Bellamy recognizes him from a couple of days ago. The boy had claimed he’d be able to set up some sort of network to be able to contact each other when people are off in the woods. Monty, Bellamy believes was his name.

From across the room Murphy shrugs. “Most grounders speak English.”

“But that’s the whole thing,” Bellamy says as he steps forwards, “we don’t know if she’s a grounder.”

He sees Murphy’s look deflate into annoyance from the corners of his eyes and can’t help his grin from coming into place. With a shake of his head Bellamy opens the door to the spare room they’ve been using to contain the mystery girl.

Inside he immediately gets a book thrown his way, but he manages to catch it. The smirk that was rising up to mark his features died down when he saw that the girl had taken a defensive stand in the room, a mixture of anger and fear in her eyes.

Bellamy swallows and tries to make his expression more open, more approachable. He rises his hands, hopefully showing her he means no harm. Because he doesn’t, as far as Bellamy can tell the girl’s not necessarily an enemy of them, so he doesn’t have any reason to treat her like one. That doesn’t mean he trusts her though. Her way of arrival in their camp was too strange for that, too suspicious.

The girl lowers her shoulders, the sharp edge that had marked her features ebbing away. Not completely though, Bellamy can still see the weariness in her gaze as he steps towards her. She edges away from him, sending him a look that tells him to do the same.

Bellamy swallows and sits down on the the bar stool that’s somehow made its way into the room. The girl remains standing, lifting her chin up as a sign she won’t submit to him.

From his new position he studies her form and notices the lack of war paint on her face. He knows that war paint is important in the grounder community, he isn’t one hundred percent sure what it means but most of the grounders he knows have it. It’s got something to do with honour or something. Her not having it just points towards the fact she probably hasn’t been in a grounder camp for a long time. Her clothing also doesn’t look anything like the grounder’s usual ensemble, the only resemblance being the dark leather material used in her top.

He only realizes he’s been staring when the girl’s rough and messy eyebrows twist into a frown. Bellamy visibly swallows, lowering his gaze, before speaking up. “So..what’s your name, princess?”

She just stares at him, her expression blank and unmoving, and Bellamy sighs as he realizes that Monty kid was probably right. She doesn’t understand him. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that she doesn’t know what he means. He’s seen her literally think her way out of Murphy’s arms, he knows she isn’t stupid. And with the way she’s managed to knock Collins to the ground earlier, Bellamy knows they at least both speak the language of violence, may he feel the need to resort to that.

She’s glaring at him when he looks back up at her, fire in her eyes. Bellamy makes sure to keep his voice strong, not wanting to show her any weaknesses.“So, why don’t you tell me where you’re from then.”

Bellamy waits, giving her a couple of seconds to respond. Her expression however remains..angry, not a sign of understandance visible in her features. Bellamy bites his lip, this might be more difficult than he’d anticipated.

As he looks at her he realises she might just need some reassurance. After all she has no idea what's happening to her. He slowly leans forwards on his stool and tries to soften his expression. “You know you’re safe here, right? We’re not going to hurt you.”

He can see a twitch in her eyebrow at his words, but it somehow strikes Bellamy as unimpressed. She in a whole seems unimpressed with him. He feels a sense of frustration come over him, maybe he needs to do this differently. He stands up and the anger in the girl's eyes confirms his suspicions: she's not scared at all, she's testing him. Bellamy itches towards her.

“Were you in danger before we found you?” Bellamy asks, his voice low. He can see the girl’s eyebrows lowering for a brief second, the movement so quick that Bellamy thinks he might have imagined it.

He swallows, continuing. “What clan do you belong to? Or did you belong to?”

She tilts her head then, her eyes flicking up and down his body in a slow studying gaze before meeting his eyes again, a provocation in them. Her mouth remains shut. Bellamy feels his jaw set as he realizes she is challenging him. She’s testing his authority. Bellamy smirks, feeling slightly impressed.

He steps forward, now standing so close to her that he has to look down to look into her eyes, that she’ll feel his breath on her skin. To his surprise she doesn’t try to step back but instead faces him with a rage in her eyes. He looks back at her with a controlled persistence. “I know you can understand me, you know? Your eyebrows aren’t as stoic as you think them to be.”

The girl, he has to give her credit for it, still doesn’t respond. She does swallow, the challenge in her eyes dampening slightly. Bellamy huffs out a breath, feeling somewhat pleased, and turns around in order to leave.

“Clarke.” He hears the girl say from behind him.

He turns around, watching with surprise as the girl goes to sit down on the stool he just sat on. He arches an eyebrow at her.

“Clarke.” The girl repeats. “That’s my name, Clarke.”

\----

  
Bellamy watches as most of delinquents sit down around the fire, all watching as Fox heats up another portion of her stew, while chatting happily amongst one another. Bellamy grimaces, he’s glad that things have calmed down enough for his people to just sit around a fire, without having to worry about things as grounder attacks.

He looks down, playing with the humps of rabbit and squirrel meat in his stew, when he hears footsteps approaching.

He looks up to see Octavia’s excited form flop down in front of him.

“Is it true Bellamy?” She asks him with curiosity in her eyes, dropping her voice low to a whisper. “Did you guys really capture a grounder girl?”

“Oh fuck.” Bellamy sighs, annoyance rushing through him. He’d asked everyone to keep Clarke’s arrival on the low for now, he doesn’t need for his camp to fill with gossip about her. But clearly word had gotten out.

Octavia just archs an eyebrow at him. “Well, is it?”

“How did you even get that information?” Bellamy asks her, lowering his voice to an angry whisper.

“So it’s true then? We really have a grounder girl in camp?”

Bellamy groans. “Could you please not sound so excited about it? But yes, we do. Sort of.”

Octavia's brows furrow. “What do you mean sort of?”

“Promise me you won’t tell everybody, okay?” Bellamy says with a sigh. “I need to keep this on the low for now, it’s bad enough you found out.”

Octavia gives him a nod, a sudden seriousness marking her features and Bellamy feels something inside him calm down. He knows Octavia will keep this a secret if he asks her to. “Well the thing is, we’re not sure if she’s a grounder.”

“How can you not be sure of that?” Octavia frowns. “She’s not one of us, so she must be right?”

“I don’t know O, something just seems off. She doesn’t seem like a grounder.”

Octavia’s eyes light up with joy like they did when they first found the small creek down in the forest. “You’ve seen her up close then? Can I?”

Bellamy rolls his eyes. “Yeah Octavia, I’ll introduce you two first thing tomorrow.”

“Oh shut up Bell. Why can’t I meet her? I bet I could get more out of her than you can.”

Bellamy grunts as he takes another sip of his stew, the kerrie flavoured soup warming up his insides.

Octavia sighs annoyedly when he doesn’t answer her and itches closer towards him on the log. Her eyes still filled with curiosity. “So have you talked to her? Does she speak English?”

Bellamy sighs. “Yeah, I’ve talked to her. Or well tried to.”

“Did you scare her?” He can hear the judgement in Octavia’s voice.

“No.” Bellamy shoots her a glare. “She just didn’t respond to anything I asked.”

“Well duh.” Octavia says with a roll of her eyes. “I wouldn’t tell my capturers anything either.”

“We’re not her capturers.” Bellamy says quickly, but then doubt starts filling his mind. “Are we?”

Octavia gives him a shrug. “I’d think so to be honest. I mean you guys did capture her.”

“Miller says they found her lost in the forest by herself. I think they just intended to question her, help her maybe, not capture her.”

“Doesn’t change the fact she’s captured here now. I’d be scared if I was captured, even if it was for good reasons.”

Bellamy swallows at that. How was it that his sister always managed to make him feel like an ass? The fact still was that Clarke had been in their territory and had offered no explanation as to why, not even when questioned. That’s just too suspicious for his liking. But still, maybe Bellamy should try to make her feel less like a prisoner here.

“And by the way,” Octavia says as she stands up, a smirk on her lips, “next time you need to transport a secret guest through camp, have someone a bit more subtle than Finn do it.”

Bellamy swears. “Bloody Collins.”

Octavia just laughs at that and walks away, leaving Bellamy to finish the rest of his stew alone.

\---

When Bellamy enters the drop ship he’s surprised to find it empty. As he looks around the room he shrugs off his jacket and drapes it over one of the chairs that stand around the main desk. When he hears the click of the door to where they keep Clarke opening he turns around in confusion.

Monty comes through the door but stops walking when he sees him. “Oh hey Bellamy, I just.. brought her some food.”

“That’s good.” Bellamy says, glad to see someone had been considerate enough to get her something to eat. Especially since he hadn’t been. “Did she say anything to you?”

“She did!” Monty bellows out with excitement, a blush reaching his cheeks when he realizes how loud he’d been. “Umh it’s really nothing special, she just thanked me for the food, no big deal really.”

Bellamy can’t help the small smile that makes its way to his lips. He shrugs. “At least she’s talking to somebody then.”

Monty gives him a sympathetic shrug. “I think she’ll come around, she seems nice enough.”

“I know.” Bellamy grunts out, a feeling of remorse swelling up in his stomach. “She’s just angry.”

With that he walks into Clarke’s room, finding her eating a bowl of leftover stew in the corner. She looks up at him with less anger than she had yesterday and with something that looks a bit like acceptance. For some reason that sends a grimace to Bellamy’s lips.

He walks further into the room without saying anything and goes to lean against the wall Clarke’s facing, leaving her to eat in peace for a couple of minutes.

“So I’m pretty sure you’re not telling me where you’re from anytime soon,” Bellamy starts after a few moments of silence and he can see the corners of the girl’s lips rising, “but I’d still like to know what you were doing on my land?”

Clarke lowers her head and takes another few sips from her stew with something that seems like doubt. When she finally speaks up, she does so without facing him. “I didn’t mean to cross into your lands, but I’m glad that I did.”

The sound of her voice sends the hairs on his arms upwards. It's a unique sound, rough but somehow light. An accent in her English that he's never heard before. It fits her, somehow.

She then looks up at him, her blue eyes filled with genuinity, and he arches an eyebrow at her, motioning for her to continue her story.

“I’ve been looking for a safe place, somewhere I could stay for a while. I was looking for a ground people clan, but I think you people might treat me better, you seem a lot less..violent.”

Bellamy huffs out a breath, causing for some of the tension to bleed out of Clarke’s shoulders.

“I come from a place far away from here and it was no longer safe for me to live there. So I ran, hoping to find an establishment like yours.” She pauses. “I’ve been walking for I think a week now, before your men found me. They scared me, I didn’t know what they were going to do to me and I panicked.”

Clarke looks embarrassed as she admits that last part. “I’m sorry for attacking them. And for not speaking up yesterday, I just didn’t know if I could trust you.”

Bellamy bites his lip as he thinks her story through. It seems real enough, even if she’s clearly leaving things out. Things he’d probably leave out too, if he was in her position. He swallows and decides to focus on getting as much out of her now as he can, he can worry about the realness of her story later. “So, do we need to worry about people coming after you?”

She shakes her head, a sadness filling up her eyes. “No, no one will be coming for me.”

Bellamy nods, feeling himself lose his grip as he recognizes the emotion in her eyes. Grief.

Clarke suddenly stands up, leaving her stew behind on the floor, and walks towards him. Bellamy instinctively straightens against the wall. She looks at him like she had the first time he saw her, her eyes boring into his intensely, as if she’s hoping she can look into his soul like that. It sends the hairs on his arm upwards.

He breaks the eye contact when he feels his body tightening in places that shouldn’t be tightening. His voice sounds lower than he’d meant for it to sound when he speaks back up. “So what do you want to do now Clarke? What’s your plan?”

She huffs out a breath, the sound bitter and unpleasant in Bellamy’s ears. “I don’t have a plan, do I honestly look like I have a plan to you?”

Bellamy watches with wide eyes as she starts pacing around the room, moving her hands in wild gestures as she speaks. “I don’t have a bloody plan, I never had one. I had to run for my life, I didn’t exactly have time to think of a plan.” She spats the last part with anger, mostly aimed at herself. “I ran for days, until I was so exhausted I fainted. Then I ran again, because that's all I can do apparently. And now I’m here, in this stupid cold room that I don’t understand and you’re here asking what my plan is and I don’t know okay, all I know is running. I just want to run until I can’t anymore. That’s my fucking plan.”

She stops talking then, the only sound in the room her now harsh and trembling breathing, and she looks up at him. Her eyes are swelled up with tears. She breathes in, a soft whine filling up the room before she falls to her knees.

Bellamy launches himself forwards, wanting to keep her from falling, but she just shakes her head at him and allows herself to drop to the floor.

Bellamy looks around, unsure of what to do, before lowering himself as well, sitting down next to her on the cold metal floor. She’s trembling, breathing in and out heavily and Bellamy doesn’t know why, but he feels the immense need to comfort her. So he remains next to her, hoping the presence of another person will comfort her, until her breathing evens out and she moves to wipe her tears away. Shame starts to mark her features.

“I’m sorry,” she says, her voice wavering, “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“It’s okay.” Bellamy hears himself say. “You can stay here for now.”

\---

“You told her what?”

Bellamy scratches the back of his neck as he looks at the exasperated expression on Miller’s face. “I may have told her she could stay here for a while, to strengthen up.”

“Bellamy..” Miller sighs.

“I know.” Bellamy says, also releasing a sigh. “I don’t know why I said it either.”

The room’s silent after that, everyone taking the news in, until Murphy releases a snicker. “Can’t believe Bellamy fell for some girl’s tears.”

Miller hits him on the chest from where he’s standing and Bellamy grins, but does feel his cheeks reddening at Murphy’s words. Especially because it wasn’t too far from the truth. He did kind of take pity on Clarke.

“Well, it happened.” He says after having taken a breath. “And I don’t think it will cause any problems, it might actually be best, this way we can keep an eye on her.”

Murphy just shakes his head with an unbelieving huff of breath, making it clear he doesn’t agree. Bellamy feels his hands tightening into fists as he looks away, Murphy’s disapproval and mocking are bothering him extremly for some reason.

“I think Bellamy’s right.” Bellamy looks up in surprise at Collins speaking up, that was one of the last places he’d thought he’d get support from.

Finn sighs and moves his hands around as he starts explaining himself. “The thing is, we still don’t who this girl is and what she’s doing here. If he keep her here, we at least don’t have to worry about what she could be doing out there.”

It remains quiet for a couple of seconds, the atmosphere in the room turning tense. Then Miller sighs and allows his arms to fall next to his body. “I suppose we could use her help for winter preparations.”

Bellamy feels a smile come to his lips at his friend’s acceptance and at the way he can see Finn nodding in agreement next to him.

Murphy looks between them, a frown present on his face. “So, you all trust her now?”

“No we don’t.” Finn speaks up. “But we have no reason to distrust her either.”

“No reason to distrust her?” Murphy raises his brows with disbelief. “How about that we still don’t know why she was on our lands? She could have been spying on us for all you know.”

When there’s no response Murphy scuffs. “No reason to distrust her, have you all lost your fucking minds? She could be here to kill us.”

“Enough Murphy.” Bellamy warns, voice raised.

Murphy shakes his head. “I can’t believe this, just because Bellamy has a fucking boner for this girl you’ll all suddenly allow a stranger into camp?”

Bellamy bites at his lip, barely managing to control his anger.

Murphy takes one last look at the rest of them, before shaking his head in a mixture of disbelief and shame. “Great fucking idea everyone, let’s all just welcome some filthy grounder whore into camp.”

Bellamy launches towards him at that, slamming Murphy’s smaller and thinner frame against the drop ship wall. “Enough.” He grumbles out, his voice threateningly low. “She’s staying.”

“Then I’m not.” Murphy spats, his face so close to Bellamy’s that Bellamy can feel drops of spit landing on his forehead. “She’s not to be trusted and just because you’re all too stupid to see it doesn’t mean I am.”

With that he smacks Bellamy’s arms off of him and walks away from him and the others. Only turning around when he’s almost reached the ship’s exit, where he stops to look at Finn and Miller. “If this goes wrong, which it will, you’ll wish you’d have listened to me instead of him.”

\---

“So,” Bellamy starts as he approaches his younger sister, “remember that girl I told out about?”

Octavia’s eyes immediately shoot up at him and she drops the wooden stick she’d been carving into a spear with disinterest. “Of course I do. Why? Is there news?”

“Not news necessarily, just a development.”

“A development is news you dumbass,” she says with the oh so familiar roll of her eyes, “now tell me what it is.”

Bellamy sighs but does lower himself to sit down next to her on the log. “She’s going to be staying here for a while. We need someone who’ll..help her settle in.”

Octavia’s eyes widen at his words, excitement filling them up as she realizes what he means. “Really Bell?”

Bellamy represses the urge to roll his eyes. “Yes, really O.”

She jumps up at that, her voice bright and excited. “Hell yes! I swear I’ll do an amazing job Bell. I’ll be super nice to her. Now tell me what she’s like, is she shy or is she pretty social? Will I scare her off if I’m too direct? Do you think she'll like to talk about her life or should I not even mention it?”

Bellamy shakes his head, slightly bothered by Octavia’s ongoing babbling, but can’t help the small fond smile coming to his lips. He grabs a hold of her shoulder, forcing her to a stop. “It won’t matter okay O, you’ll do great either way.”

\--

And she did.

It took a couple of long days, days in which Octavia had banned Bellamy from the dropship, but she did it.

Bellamy doesn’t know what he expected Octavia to do exactly, as long as she made sure Clarke would feel comfortable here, but when he heard Clarke laughing for the first time he knew he’d picked the right person for the job.

Explaining the situation to his people was tricky, but thanks to Miller’s calm clarification they managed to work it out.

It took a lot of work, but when Bellamy first saw Clarke out in the open field, her fair hair light up by the sunlight, the way she smiled brightly at the fresh scent of the forest returning to her nose, he realised it was worth it. Even though they don't know anything about her, she didn’t deserve to spend her time locked up in the drop ship.

Because even though the chance she's not being honest with them is big, there's still a chance that she is telling the truth. That she was on the run and needed a place to stay. They shouldn't just dismiss that, they should at least give her a chance to prove herself.

And the thing is; if they wanted to get to the bottom of this, they would need to win her trust. Keeping her locked up wouldn't do that any good.


	2. Chapter 2

“So.. how do you think she’s doing?” Miller asks him from next to him. They’re taking a break from their rounds, both watching Clarke work alongside other campers. They’re fixing a hole in one of the camp’s east gates.

Bellamy looks up to his friend. “She’s doing good. Surprisingly good.”

Miller nods, lowering his glare. “I think so too. People seem to like her.”

Bellamy nods. It’s been a couple of days since they’d introduced the camp to Clarke and it had all gone surprisingly well. Most campers had been wary at first, as to be expected, but after a couple of days of seeing that Clarke meant no harm and was there to help most campers took a liking to her.

When Bellamy looks back up Miller’s staring at where Clarke is helping the camp, a frown on his face. Bellamy can basically see the thoughts running through his friend’s mind.

“What’s wrong then?” He offers.

Miller looks at him, lost and apologetic. “I don’t know Bellamy, it just all still feels strange to me. She just shows up here, attacking us, and is then suddenly all nice and friendly, eager to help.”

“It is strange I suppose.” Bellamy nods, his eyes drifting from Clarke to Miller. “But I don’t know, I think she was telling the truth.”

Miller just nods as if he understands and agrees, but Bellamy can see that he doesn’t. Not completely at least.

He returns his line of sight to Clarke, to where she’s now talking to the tall but scrawny looking kid Jasper, chatting happily as they finish up their work on the gate. Bellamy’s eyes fixate on the way Clarke’s changed. She’s opened up, gone from not speaking at all to making fucking smalltalk. Miller’s right, it is a little suspicious.

Clarke’s eyes suddenly meet his from across the field. She quickly lowers her glare, biting at her lip, as she excuses herself from her conversation with Jasper. She then turns his way and he can see a determination overtaking her the closer she gets. Bellamy swallows at the look of her.

When Miller notices her coming closer he quickly gives Bellamy’s shoulder a squeeze before bailing, still not comfortable around the blonde.

“‘sup princess?” Bellamy asks Clarke once she’s reached him.

She looks up at him, giving him an exasperated look at the nickname before looking down again, a blush reaching her cheeks. “This morning I realised I never really thanked you and I really need to do that. So thank you.”

Bellamy stares at her, his stomach tightening. “Thank me for what?”

“For you know..letting me be here.” Clarke’s eyes shine brightly into his as a small smile makes its way to her lips.

A smile Bellamy can’t help but mimick. He shrugs. “It’s nothing.”

“But it is,” Clarke says, a seriousness working its way into her features, “it really is. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t allowed me to stay here.”

Bellamy nods, looking down at the ground. A feeling of guilt for his earlier thought of distrust filling his chest. But curiosity fills it too. What would she have done had he not let her in? Would she have continued her walking, maybe try to find a grounder clan and ask for refugee there? Or maybe she would have turned back home? If wherever she’s from is still livable that is.

Bellamy bites at his lip as he realizes he still knows so little about Clarke’s past, which could come back to bite him in the ass. He doesn’t even know why she left her home in the first place.

When he looks back up Clarke is still in front of him, looking around awkwardly, and he bites at his lip before speaking up. “What would you have done Clarke? Would you have been able to go back to your home?”

Clarke’s expression quickly falters, all signs of the previous thankfulness disappearing. Bellamy can basically see the front that had been between them in the first conversation they had in the drop ship retaking its position on her face as she swallows, blocking him out. She sends a forced smile his way, not looking into his eyes. “No.. no I wouldn’t have.”

With that she walks away from him, not giving him a chance to say anything back. Leaving him to stare at her back and sigh at his own stupidity.

\---

A sigh falls from his lips as he sits behind his desk, repressing the urge to shake his head. Atom’s standing in front of him, looking at him with a level of desperation Bellamy hasn’t seen often before.

“Come on Bellamy, we need to do something.” Atom says, a tiny sparkle of hope visible in his eyes. “He’s been gone for four days now.”

Bellamy wants to say no, even though he knows Atom’s right. They probably do need to do something to try and find Murphy.

Bellamy has to say that when he heard that Murphy had taken off, he was surprised. Murphy’s threatened to leave them more than once, actually he’d threatened to do so whenever he didn’t agree with the way Bellamy handled something, but all had turned out to be empty threats. Murphy had never actually done it and to be honest Bellamy didn’t think he ever would.

But now he had. Apparently giving Clarke refugee in their camp really hadn’t sat well with the guy.

On one hand Bellamy thinks he should leave the guy be, if he really wants to leave his home behind over something so small and petty he can. In Bellamy’s opinion is that if Murphy really doesn’t trust Bellamy’s instincts and judgement enough to stick around he can fuck right off. But Bellamy knows that Murphy’s become a valued and needed member of the camp, he knows Murphy belongs here.

Which is why he sighs as he looks back up at Atom. “What do you suggest we do?”

\--

Whenever Bellamy has dinner with his sister it feels like they’ve gone back five years. Like they’re still in their tiny room on the Ark, like Bellamy had just helped Octavia out of her hiding spot and like they’d just spent the late afternoon cooking together. Octavia used to love the activity of cooking, made her feel as if she was contributing. Made her feel as if she could chose her own thing to do, like she had control over something. Which is why dinners have always been something special to them.

Except now, having dinner with his sister was even better than before.

On earth it was better.

Here Bellamy didn’t need to go get Octavia out of the fucking floor, here they didn’t need to constantly be on edge, always wondering if the knock on the door would be their mother or members of the guard. Here they were free.

Today however, was not like that.

Bellamy awkwardly looks down at his half-finished plate, the sound of his sister’s laughter and Clarke’s amused huff of breath filling up his ear. When he does look up his eyes meet Clarke’s for a quick second, before the blonde girl turns her head, purposely looking away. Bellamy feels his throat tighten at the look of it, and bites the inside of his cheek when he sees her cheeks reddening.

Things have been tense between the two of them ever since he asked about her home. But what is he supposed to do? The fact is that they still barely know anything about her. He might have pushed her too far too soon, but he’s not sorry for trying.

Octavia obviously thinks he should be, if the occasional shaking of her head in his direction is anything to go by.

He sends her a glare before raising his fork to grab a bite of the roasted meat on his plate and he purposely does not look at his sister the rest of the meal, not in the mood to get judged for something he’s supposed to be doing.

\--

He watches the animal in front of him through the strands of the tall grass he’s currently hidden in, his arrow pulled tight in his bow. It bends down its neck and Bellamy is surprised at the elegance he finds in the movement. He never really read any books about animals or nature back on the Ark, too focused on the history books, so he has no idea what the creature in front of him is. He does know he   thinks it’s beautiful, with its golden fur and big eyes. And he knows that it’s large and therefore a great meal for tonight.

He pulls his bow backwards and makes sure to aim the tip of his arrow on where he guesses the creature’s heart must be. Then he hears a crack behind him, the obvious snapping of a twig under the feet of someone’s who’s obviously never been hunting before, and the creature’s neck twist towards them before it runs off, not giving Bellamy the slightest chance to release his arrow.

He turns around to a flustered Monty. “Oh I’m sorry Bellamy, I didn’t mean to.”

Bellamy smiles. “It’s okay Monty, we weren’t really here to hunt anyway.”

They’re on their way back to camp, after having walked around to see if Monty’s plan can be realized with the resources the forest gives.

“Well yeah, still..” the other guy mutters, cheeks turning red.

“I said it’s okay Monty, don’t worry about it.” Bellamy stands up from the crouch position he was still in. “So, did you see anything that could work?”

Monty quickly smiles when his excitement over his project takes over his embarrassment. “Yeah, I’m thinking some of the really tall and stronger trees could really work as great satellite posts, since they’re high enough the send and receive signals. But then I’d have to make sure the receivers work wireless, which they aren’t doing right now.”

Bellamy nods. “But if you get them to work like that, will we really be able to set up a network?”

“If what I’ve calculated is correct, it should be possible.”

“Even into the deepest part of the woods?”

Monty nods, waving his hand to a random tree next to them. “If we place enough receivers there, it should, yeah.”

Bellamy nods, understanding, and his eyes widen as he realizes Monty’s plan could really benefit them. Now, whenever he sends off a team, he has to wait for their results till they get back. He never knows what’s happening out there, except his speculation. Having a way to talk to his men when they’re way could solve a lot of problems. If they’re in danger he can help. If they need to know something, they can ask. It would make things so much easier.

Which is why he smiles back up at Monty. “This could really be something great, keep up the good work Monty.”

\--

“Don’t you dare touch her!”

The voice reaches them clearly in the middle of the drop ship, even though it obviously came from outside. Bellamy freezes as he recognizes it as his sisters. Miller sends him a worried look.

Together they rush outside to see his sister standing in the middle of the open field, positioned defensively in between Clarke and Dax, her hands balled into fists . Clarke’s on the ground, her chest rising up and down heavily, arms covered with dirt. Dax stands on Octavia’s other side, towering above the two girls, his lips curled up in an angry snarl, a sharp looking knife in his right hand. A crowd stood gathered around them.

Octavia steps towards where Dax is standing, whose knuckles were turning white because of how tightly he was holding his knife. “If you dare to take another step towards her, I will slit your fucking throat.”

“What’s going on here?” Bellamy barks out, not waiting for Dax’s reply to his sister’s threat, and steps towards the scene in front of him.

Octavia turns towards him, anger marking her features, and motions to Dax. “This bonehead attacked Clarke.”

Bellamy’s jaw tightens, his eyes darting to where Clarke is slowly sitting up. She shoots him a look, her eyes filled with embarrassment.

“Is this true?” He grunts out at seeing the ugly gash on Clarke’s cheek.

Dax looks at him, face filled with confidence, and starts explaining. “I saw her stealing our supplies, Bellamy.”

Otavia releases a harsh sounding laugh and shakes her head in disbelief. “I was with her the entire time Bellamy, she was not stealing.”

“I swear I saw her Bellamy,” Dax said, an earnest expression on his face, “why would I lie about this?”

“Maybe because you’re a fucking manipulator who’s hated Clarke since the moment she arrived here?” Octavia spat as she stepped into Dax’s personal space.

“Octavia.” Bellamy said with a raised voice, not wanting Octavia to get that close to a still angry Dax. And also just because she’s his sister doesn't mean that she can’t be out of line.

Dax looked at him, twisting his knife around in his hands as he shrugs. “The girl’s a grounder, why should I trust her?”

“Maybe because I do?” Bellamy asks, making sure to underline his words with a warning tone.

Dax’s confident grin falls from his lips and he visibly swallows. The crowd around them also silences, understanding Bellamy’s warning.

Then Miller steps forward, raising both his hands in a calming gesture. “Okay people, how about we all calm down a bit and go back to work?”

The crowd murmurs a bit before slowly turning around and walking away. Dax puts back his knife in his jeans pocket and gives Bellamy a submissive nod.  
Pleased Bellamy nods in his direction before walking towards where Clarke had stood up. He grabs a hold of her hand that she accepts with doubt. He then quickly leans towards Octavia, squeezing her shoulder supportingly, before turning around. He knows his sister and Miller can handle the situation further.

“You okay?” He shoots over his shoulder as he guides Clarke to their emergency post.

“I’m fine.” Clarke says as she tries to pull back her hand. “There’s no need to waste your supplies on me.”

Bellamy turns around, looking at the still bleeding gash on her cheek from where Dax had nicked her with his knife. He fights the temptation to brush his fingers over it. He looks up at her. “That’s not fine.”

“It’ll heal.” She says, eyes looking up into his. He swallows when he realizes this is the first conversation they’ve had in days.

“It needs to be cleaned.” He says, his stare persistent as he looks down at her.

Finally she agrees, sighing as she does so, and allows him to guide her to the tent they’ve been using to try and heal their sick and wounded.  
The tent is busier than Bellamy’s used to it being when they enter. Three teens lay coughing in the make-shift beds, two others are sitting in the worn out chairs in the corners, gaping wounds on their arms.

Right, Bellamy remembered with a frown, there had been an accident with some spears this morning.

Trina is walking in between them, busy aiding whoever needs help. Bellamy feels a sad smile come to his lips as he looks at her navigating in between the sick campers. Trina’s been running the infirmary for a couple of years now, ever since her boyfriend Pascal died in the acid fog.

Acid fog had been one of the first catastrophes his people had faced on earth. It had really injured many of their people and therefore really called in on the need for medical attention. Devastated and angered by Pascal’s death, Trina had dived into it. She started studying its effects and possible treatments. Successfully too. She saved the lives of many of his people after that and has kept the infirmary running ever since.

“Oh hey Bellamy,” the young girl says as she notices them and starts walking towards them, tying up her dark hair in a ponytail, “what’s up?”

“I was wondering if you could maybe check out Clarke’s cheek.”

“Of course.” Trina sends a kind smile their way as she steps towards Clarke and takes a closer look.

The dark haired girl tilts her head slightly as she looks at Clarke’s injury, her eyes squinted in focus. After a brief touch of her fingers to the wound she looks up at Bellamy. “Looks like it’ll heal itself, but you could clean it with some alcohol if you’d like.”

Bellamy can feel Clarke giving him a pointed look from next to him but ignores it. “Thanks Trina.”

“It’s on the top shelf.” Trina says with a wink before returning to one of the boys with the spearwounds.

Bellamy forced Clarke to sit down on one of the beds, pretending to not see her eyeroll at being forced to sit down, and grabs the bottle of clear liquid from where it’s positioned in between collections of herbs. He wettens one of the cloths they’ve got laying around with it.

He walks towards where Clarke is seated and presses the now alcohol drained cloth against her wound. Clarke doesn’t make a sound as the pure alcohol comes in contact with the flesh of her insides, even though Bellamy knows it’s not a pleasant sensation. Instead her eyes are locked on where Trina is trying to stitch up the boy’s arm, closely following Trina’s movements.

He can see Clarke biting her lip in doubt, as if she’s considering whether speaking up is the right thing to do, before she does open her mouth. “It would be better to do mattress stitches like that from the right, they’ll last longer that way.”

Trina looks up in surprise, both slight annoyance at being corrected and curiosity visible in her expression. She stands up and faces Clarke. “But the spear obviously went in from a left angle, so shouldn’t I start my stitching from the left then?”

Clarke swallows, looking Bellamy’s way, clearly wondering if she should answer or let it lie. He gives her a curious look, which makes her shrug. “Well, a left stitch will make the skin fold wrong and leave a bigger scar.”

To Bellamy’s surprise Trina just smiles at Clarke’s answer, happy and obviously impressed. She flicks her head and rises her hand, offering Clarke the needle and thread. “Come show me then, grounder girl.”

Clarke raises a brow at the sound of the nickname but does hop off the bed, meeting Trina’s challenge. Bellamy sends her a quick inquisitive look which she dismisses with a confident wink before walking off to Trina and the wounded camper.

Bellamy lingers in the background and watches with bewilderment as Clarke takes Trina’s needle in her hand and makes quick and clean work of stitching up the wound. Moving with a grace that can’t be taught. He feels pretty fucking amazed. And the confident, almost bordering on cocky, grin Clarke gets on her face when she finishes it flawlessly does things to him.

\--

The sun is setting when they exit the tent, where Clarke had spent the last hour helping Trina sew all the spearwounds shut and where Bellamy had sat in a mixture of awe and confusion. Clarke’s striding on next to him, staring up at how the sky is painted in shades of orange mixed with a light pink. Bellamy looks at her profile, at the constant seriousness he finds in her expression. He wonders where that seriousness came from, he wonders what happened to her.

Clarke’s eyes dart his way and Bellamy clears his throat, looking down before he turns this situation into an uncomfortable one. “So how did you know all that stuff?”

Clarke sends him a sideways glance. “I worked at my camp’s medical centre.”

"Oh I didn't know that." Bellamy sends an impressed glance Clarke’s way.

She just gives him a dismissive shrug. “It wasn’t a big deal or anything. Just a thing I did.”

“Looked like a big deal to me,” Bellamy said, “you must have helped a lot of people. You did things I’ve never seen anyone do.”

Clarke looks down at that and her voice turns rough. “Well, my mom taught me. She was the best around.”

Bellamy swallows, recognizing the use of past tense. It’s quiet for a couple of seconds, before he looks back up at her. “Do you miss her?”

Clarke stops walking and turns her head, the movement sharp and taken aback, making clear she hadn’t realized what she’d said. Swallowing, she looks down briefly, before meeting his eyes with a forced smile on her lips.

Bellamy opens his mouth to apologize, he’d clearly overstepped one of the many boundaries between them, again, but before he can her hands grabs his and she gives it a small squeeze, as if to tell him it’s okay.

She then moves to turn around, but Bellamy grabs a hold of her wrist before she can. “Look Clarke I’m sorry for prying, but you can understand that I feel kind of in the dark here. With you.”

Clarke releases a small sigh and moves towards him. “I do and I realize I owe you more of an explanation than I’ve given you, but I’m sorry Bellamy I just can’t give it to you right now.”

Her eyes bore into his with an intensity that makes his stomach twitch. He can see a slight desperation in them as well, a desperation for him to understand where she’s coming from. He supposes he does understand, whatever caused to run away from home must have been intense. Maybe she’s not ready to talk about it yet, or maybe she just can’t for some reason.

As much as he wants to know, wants to force her to tell it all, he knows he can’t. The mixture of hope and desperation in her eyes is enough to let him know prying right now would backfire. So he just smiles, giving her a nod. “It’s okay Clarke, I can understand that.”

Her returning smile makes him release a breath he didn’t even know he had been holding in, he might still have his doubts about her but at least he got her to talk to him again. The trust between the two of them somewhat restored.

\---

His gun feels heavy as it hangs on his shoulder, the strap close to cutting into his skin. He feels lost. Murphy’s been gone for a whole week now and even though they’ve spent the last couple of days skimming every part of the nearby forests, aimlessly looking around for signs of Murphy, they still have no clue where the fucker is hanging out.

Because even when the prick isn’t around, he still manages to waste all of Bellamy’s time.

Bellamy wants to say fuck this, fuck Murphy, let him leave if he wants to, but he knows the camp wants and needs Murphy around. He knows they have to do this. Doesn’t mean he wants to though. Especially not when there are no results to show for it. He’s confused. Because how is it that they haven’t found any fucking signs for Murphy? The guy isn’t smart enough to be able to disappear without a trace.

Trina passes him by, a kind greeting smile at her lips, and walks on towards the infirmary. Bellamy feels a small smile come to his lips as he looks at the small building. It had blossomed over the last couple of days, now Clarke started helping out. Clarke hadn't lied, it was obvious that she had been taught many medical procedures, some Trina had never even thought of. She knew a lot, about what herbs to use when and how to best deal with issues like blood loss.

It makes Bellamy kind of sad to think about, seeing how mind blowingly good Clarke is at this, he can’t help but wonder how good her mother would have been. He cracks his fingers as he wonders about what happened to them. To Clarke and her mom. It’s frustrating him more now than ever, why she’d been forced to come here for safety, now that he’s gotten to see a glimpse what Clarke is like. Her camp must have been advanced, at least on medical facilities. What could have happened to a camp that advanced, that strong?

Would the same thing happen to them?

\--

“Bellamy!”

Recognizing his sister’s voice, Bellamy turns around and is just in time to open up his arms for Octavia’s excited and unexpected hug. He huffs out a laugh as she squeezes him tight and whispers overjoyed thank you’s into his ear.

He chuckles. “Thank you for what?”

Octavia lowers her arms and steps out of their embrace. Her smile is bright when she looks up at him. “For letting Clarke work in the infirmary.”

Bellamy shrugs, a shy smile finding its way to his lips. “Well yeah, she seems to know more about healing and Earth’s herbs than we do.”

Octavia shrugs. “Still, it shows a lot of faith to trust her with our lives like that.”

Bellamy frowns as he realizes he hadn’t really thought about it like that. He’d seen Clarke’s new position as a way to improve life in their camp, not necessarily as a question of trust. But now that he thinks about it he realizes that is what it is, it is a matter of how much he trusts Clarke. Letting her work in camp, especially as fragile a job as healing their wounded, really requires a lot of faith and trust in her.

A small flicker of doubt rushes through his mind. After all, they still didn’t know a whole lot about Clarke. Is letting her work along their most vulnerable campers really that good an idea? She could easily hurt them there, at their literal weakest spot.

Bellamy shakes his head as he dismisses that thought. Clarke wouldn’t do that, wouldn’t take advantage of the situation like that. Wouldn’t hurt someone who wasn’t up to fight back.

At least, he trusts her enough to not do that.

He looks back up at his sister as he realizes he does in fact trust Clarke. He shrugs. “I don’t know, I think we can trust her.”

Octavia’s bright, surprised smile makes his words worth their while. She grabs his hand and squeezes it, a warmness in her eyes. “Me too.”

Then his sister’s eyes light up, an excited sparkle marking them, as she spots something behind him. Bellamy turns to see Clarke walking by and from next to him Octavia waves her over.

As Clarke walk towards them she looks at Bellamy with that same intensity they’ve shared before, and he quickly averts his eyes, thoughts he shouldn’t be thinking about their camp’s guest filling his mind. The eyecontact had however lasted long enough for Bellamy to feel the pull between them strengthening. To feel the now familiar itching sensation bubbling up in his stomach.

When he looks back up the two girls are sharing a private smile, making it clear that they’ve formed a close friendship over the last couple of days. He supposes that’s good, Octavia could use a friend. Not that she didn’t have any friends in camp before, because she does. He knows she’s close with Jasper, Monty, sometimes Fox, and unfortunately sometimes Collins. But she’s never had a real friend, one that would put her above anyone else. Bellamy tries, but it’s different for him, he’ll always be her brother first, friend second.

Clarke and Octavia have started up a conversation, but Bellamy can’t get himself to join in. His eyes are locked on the way Clarke’s lips move when she speaks, his ears listening to the way her voice sometimes rises an octave or two when she’s laughing.

Octavia squeezes into the skin on his upper arm, causing for him to move his eyes from Clarke to her. She just sends him a knowing wink and whispers softly enough that Clarke won’t hear it. “It’s rude to stare, Bell.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the long wait, I had my final exams the last few weeks so I didn't have time to write or well have fun in any way. However now I do have the time so here it is.


	3. Chapter 3

Over the last few days Bellamy had noticed something. There had been somewhat of a shift in camp. There was a difference between Clarke’s presence in camp now and her presence when she first got here.

At first she’d clearly been an outsider, someone who didn’t belong here. People didn’t know her, didn’t trust her, and treated her accordingly. But now..it wasn’t like that anymore. It was like people had stopped seeing her as an outsider and accepted her as a member of camp. They didn’t stop and stare anymore, they just talked to her like they would to any other.

He can see why. Clarke had slowly made her way into daily life. She works in the infirmary of course, where she meets and helps many people, but she also helps the camp in other ways when needed. She’s gotten incredibly close with Octavia and Trina, and therefore with their friends. She’s integrating. Becoming a part of camp. Bellamy doesn’t know how to feel about it. He likes it on one hand, but he can also see the danger in people, including him, feeling like she belongs here. Because he still isn’t so sure whether she really does.

\--

Panic fills up his chest as he looks at the pale figure that is Jasper in his and Miller’s arms, at the dark red blood leaking out of the arrow wound on the younger guy’s chest.

“Get out of the way!” Miller grunts out at the group of staring teenagers that stand in front of the infirmary, unknowingly blocking their path towards it.  They quickly scoot out of the way, shocked expressions on their faces, and Bellamy grunts as they carry the unconscious Jasper inside.

There Trina immediately rushes towards them, clearing one of the hospital beds, and motions for them to put him down there. Clarke stands in the background, her frozen posture indicating her surprise. Bellamy looks at her once he’s put Jasper down, but her eyes remain fixed on the wound in Jasper’s chest, widening once she figures out how it had gotten there.

She then moves towards Bellamy, worry visible in her features.  Slight anger hearable in her voice. “What the hell happened?”

“We moved into grounder territory,” Bellamy says, still slightly out of breath, “didn’t end well.”

Her eyebrows shoot up into a frown. “Is your relationship with the grounders really that hostile? They just attack?”

Bellamy clears his throat, a feeling of awkwardness and embarrassment filling his chest. Their poor relationship with the grounders is not something he’s proud of. “We’ve had our differences.”

She rolls her eyes at that and moves her hand as if she wants to punch his arm, but stops herself at the last moment.  Bellamy catches himself wishing she hadn’t.

Clarke licks her lips and looks at where Jasper is lying down. “Why were you even in their territory?”

“One of our men is missing,” Bellamy admits and notices the surprised frown on Clarke’s face, “he left camp a week ago and hasn’t been seen since. We were trying to look for him.”

“Well,” she says as she folds her arms over each other, “did you find him?”

He shakes his head, embarrassed at the way he can see slight disappointment in her eyes. She shakes her head and looks at him, a stern seriousness in her eyes. “I’ll help you look next time.”

With that she walks away, hurrying when she remembers the state Jasper’s in. Trina meets her halfway and they discuss their plan in a mixture of rushed orders and arguments. Then Clarke just grabs one of their tools and dives into Jasper’s wound, a focus in her features that leaves Bellamy in awe. He isn’t sure when he leaves, but knows that his jeans were suspiciously tight when he did.

\--

Bellamy sighs, staring up at the ceiling of his tent, not having closed an eye all night. He has those kinda nights sometimes, where he just can’t seem to fall asleep. He groans, deciding he has better things to do with his time than waste it trying to fall asleep. It’s not going to happen anyway. Not anymore. Kicking the sheets off of him, he puts on his boots and heads outside.

The night air is cool on the side of his face and the few bits of sleep he had managed to catch are blown out of his eyes. He stretches his neck and looks around camp. It’s completely empty, except for the two guards that had gotten night shift standing at the gate. Bellamy sighs, realising he doesn’t feel like hanging out in camp alone. He might as well go hunt, so he grabs a spear and heads into the woods.

Sending the guards a nod of his head he walks past them. The woods are quiet, just the faint sounds of some already active birds hearable. He knows he won’t catch much land animals this time of night, earth doesn’t have that many that are nocturnal, but he might be able to catch some fish. They have a river nearby and the grounders allowed them to have a small portion of it.

When he’s close he suddenly realizes the river isn’t abandoned like usually. There’s a figure sitting at the river bank, feet in the water. He feels his muscles tightening, fingers curling around his spear, as he advances. The person remains in their position, not moving a muscle, and Bellamy slowly rises his spear above his head. He takes another step and suddenly recognizes the person when the moonlight reflects on her already familiar light hair. Feeling like an idiot, he quickly lowers his spear.

He stares at Clarke’s back for a few seconds, a grin rising to his lips when he realizes something. Clarke shouldn’t be able to be here. The guards aren’t supposed to let anyone out at night. Yet here she is, sitting at the river bank like it’s nobody’s business. He laughs quietly, shaking his head before hopping down. Clarke turns around and after the initial shock sends him a tense smile.

He looks over at her as he sits down, an already amused grin at his lips. “How’d you get out here princess? Did you sneak past the guards?”

Clarke huffs out a breath, lowering her head as a blush reaches her cheeks. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I just needed to get out.”

“It’s okay,” Bellamy says, “I’m mostly impressed.”

Clarke laughs and Bellamy looks at her, at how her eyes light up when she smiles.  Even in this darkness. She catches him looking at her and her smile turns sweet, but he can’t get himself to return the action as he realizes she’d said she needed to get out. As in, she couldn’t be in camp any longer.

He frowns. Why couldn’t she? Did she really still feel unwelcome or uncomfortable with them? Did she still feel locked up? He’d tried so hard to not make her feel like that, to try and give her space and time, to try and trust her. He’d thought he’d at least made her feel welcome, but apparently she still felt like an outsider. Like a prisoner.  The realization sends a pang to his chest.

He swallows before looking at her. “Do you feel trapped here then? With us?”

Clarke turns to him and immediately starts shaking her head. Moving her hands wildly. “No, no Bellamy don’t get me wrong. I don’t feel trapped at all.”

She grabs his hand when he doesn’t respond, forcing him to look at her. “Really Bellamy, I don’t. You’ve been so kind to me, everyone has. Too kind.”   

He frowns, catching her last two words even though she lowered her voice. “What do you mean too kind?”

She shrugs next to him, looking down at the ground. “I don’t know how to explain it.”

Bellamy nods, another pang in his chest when she doesn’t say anything else. He feels lost with her. One moment she’s there laughing with his people and he feels as if she’s showing him who she is, and then there are moments like this. When she doesn’t show him anything, when she blocks him out. It makes him feel so useless, so powerless. He knows she doesn’t trust him yet, maybe can’t trust him yet, but he’s started trusting her. He wants her to trust him too.

He’s biting his lip when she suddenly does continue. Her voice soft and careful, but genuine. “I just feel like..like I’m not worth your kindness sometimes, if that makes sense? I mean, I haven’t really been all that open with you, haven’t really given you that many reasons to trust me, none at all really. But you, and everyone, still treat me like one of your own. That..that just amazes me."

She’s gone still, her eyes fixed on the water in front of them, and Bellamy can see that she’s not just amazed by it. It goes deeper than that, like she’s never seen kindness and acceptance like they’ve showed her. And like she doesn’t feel she deserves it.

She sounds so mad at herself. Angry for not having shared anything yet. It immediately melts away the few doubts he had, because she’s clearly been struggling with it more than he realized. And on top of that, she thinks she doesn’t deserve kindness because of it.

He bites his lip before speaking up. “Look Clarke, you’re not ready to tell me your story yet. I can accept that, I have accepted that. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to know because I do, but I can give you some time. Just because I don’t know everything about you shouldn’t be a reason for me not to be kind. Seriously Clarke, you know you deserve every bit of kindness you’ve gotten.”

When he finishes she’s staring into his eyes with an emotion he can’t fully put his finger on and her eyes captivate his for a brief second before he looks down, to regain composure. He looks back up and grins down on her. “But we can also treat you like shit if that’s what you want.”

She rolls her eyes, shaking her head slightly, and the pleased grin on her lips warms Bellamy’s chest back up.

\---

A group stands waiting for him at the camp’s gate and Bellamy ignores the little jump his heart makes at seeing Clarke is one of them. She’s wearing a heavy-looking dark brown jacket over her usual plain grey shirt, probably to protect her from the cold wind that can sometimes blow through the forest. He smiles.

His smile however quickly fades when he sees Octavia is another of the waiting campers.

“What are you doing here, Octavia?” He grunts out once he’s reached them.

His sister just frowns and waves her hand around like it’s obvious. “I’m coming with.”

Annoyance fills up Bellamy’s chest. He does not have time for this, especially because they’ve had this discussion before. “Did you not see what happened to Jasper the other day?”

“Of course I did,” she says with a roll of her eyes, “doesn’t mean it’s going to happen to me.”

He opens his mouth to protest further but his sister just steps forward and slaps a hand over his mouth. An exasperated glare on her face. “Shut up Bell.”

He mumbles something against her hand, irritation rushing through him, but she just raises her eyebrows, her amusement clearly visible. It reminds him of back when she used to hide behind their mother’s legs and made sure Bellamy got all the blame for whatever she did. He  rolls his eyes before he slaps her hand away. “Fine.”

When he looks up he sees Clarke has an amused grin on her face, laughter sparkling in her eyes. He ducks his head as he feels a smile coming up at the thought of making her laugh.

Miller comes up next to him and pats his shoulder. “Let’s go then, shall we?”

Bellamy nods and together they all leave towards the forests. The group’s not too big, but not small either. Miller, Bellamy and Harper are in the back, Octavia, Clarke and Finn walking in front of them. They move up north, towards the cliffs. It’s unlikely Murphy went there, but Clarke said it was an easy place to get stuck so they should at least check.

And well, what did they really have to lose?

As the day passes them by Bellamy notices with how much ease Clarke moves through the forest, climbing every hill as if it’s nothing. Avoiding every low hanging branch and every unstable bit of ground as if it’s child’s play. Bellamy supposes it is child’s play for her, seeing as this literally is where she grew up.

Growing up on earth seems strange to him. Earth is dangerous, filled with threats and unpredictabilities. How would a small child survive that? The few kids they’d had with them from the Ark almost all passed away in the first few weeks. A sad smile comes to his lips at the thought of them. Losing them had been hard on his people, hard on him. It’s weird, he knows humans were meant to live on earth, but he just can’t imagine growing up between trees instead of in between metal.

The mountains are coming in sight, towering above them impressively, the sun creating patterns on the solid grey stone. Bellamy feels a small smile hinting at his lips, even though this isn’t his first day on earth, the existence of things like this keep amazing him. Maybe growing up here wouldn’t have been so bad after all.

Finn’s laughter cuts through his thoughts and Bellamy looks up to see the younger guy edging towards Clarke, walking a little too close to the blonde. He can see Clarke responding, hears the soft huff of breath he’s come to know as her laughter, and feels annoyance fill up his chest. He bites at the inside of his cheek, trying to tear his eyes away.

“You okay, Bellamy?”

Bellamy turns to see Harper looking at him, her eyebrows raised in concern. He just nods, sqeeuzing his hands into fits, as he ignores the anger welling up inside him.

It takes another twenty minutes for them to reach the mountain side, not having seen any hints that Murphy might be here on their way. They stare up at the mass of rock in front of them, dropping their shoulders in irritation when there’s nothing to find.

“So, that was a waste of time.” Octavia huffs out, blowing a lost strand of hair out of her face.

Miller grimaces. “I seriously don’t understand, Murphy was terrible at being subtle. We should have found him already.”

Clarke’s still standing near the mountain’s edge, gazing up at it in confusion. “I don’t understand..I really thought he’d be here.” She mumbles out, only Bellamy seeming to pick up on it.

He steps towards her. “What?"

She turns around, biting her lip, and frowns up at him. “I saw some disturbances in the leaves earlier, really thought it could have been him.”

His brows rise at hearing she did see clues, ones that he didn’t see. An impressed smile makes its way to his lips. “It’s okay Clarke, at least you tried.”

She shrugs, a shy smile on her lips, red blush marking her cheeks. It makes her look younger, a lot less closed off than he’s used to seeing her. He smiles. It reminds him off the way Octavia was before their mother died.

Behind them Harper’s walking towards the mountain, eyes squeezed half closed as she peers up at an edge to their right. “Guys..”

Everyone turns to the girl, at where she’s still staring up at a point above them. “..is that a leg?”

They all look up now, yelling when they realise it is in fact a leg. Time seems to speed up as they rush to get the ropes out of Miller’s bag, tie them around Harper’s and Finn’s waists and watch as the two of them start climbing up on the mountain, wanting to reach whoever’s there as quickly as they can.

Bellamy feels his shoulders clench, his body filled with tension as he watches his men climb the unsteady edge. Clarke stands next to him, mouth open in anticipation, body tight with anxiety . She sends him a relieved smile when they both hear Finn yell out it’s Murphy and Bellamy releases the breath he’d been holding. A calmness overtakes him as he watches Finn take Murphy on his back and Clarke comes closer to him, squeezing his hand in joy. It brings a smile to his lips.

Then Harper screams, the sound cutting through his relief like a knife,  and he turns his head just in time to see how she slips on the mountain side. Falling down as far as the rope tied to Finn will let her. Panicked she lets her hands fly over the mountain side, trying to find a ledge to balance herself on, but instead she just scrapes open her hand and causes for pieces of rock to come crumbling down. Bellamy rushes forwards, just to see Clarke’s beat him to it and has already started climbing up the mountain.

He stands in shock, his heart beating faster than he can ever remember it beating, as he watches how Clarke rushes her way up the mountain. Just using her hands and feet to ascend towards where Harper is hanging helplessly. Worry fills Bellamy’s chest as he sees Finn having to adjust his position, the weight of both Murphy and Harper becoming too much.

Clarke’s quick on the mountain, using the folds in the rock to make her way up to them. Octavia screams from behind him when Harper slips even further down the mountain, Finn now forced to rely on one hand to keep them all up. Clarke avoids the rocks the sudden movement above her had sent flying her way and throws herself the last few feet up, almost falling in the process.

Bellamy’s pretty sure that if he clenches his fists any tighter he’ll draw blood.

Having reached Harper, Clarke grabs a hold of the other girl’s waist and guides her back to a stable place on the mountain’s edge. Then they all climb back down, Clarke still without a rope.

When they reach the forest floor Bellamy shoots forward, grabbing a hold of Clarke. His posture is still clenched with worry and only releases it once she looks up at him. “Don’t you dare ever do that again.” He whispers as he pushes her away.

She stands looking at him, confusion in her eyes, before Octavia comes and crushes her into a hug. Bellamy clears his throat, looking around awkwardly, before turning to an out of breath Finn.

He nods. “You did good up there Collins.”

Finn sends him a quick smile and starts untying the rope around his waist. A shaken up Harper comes over to apologize for screwing up and Bellamy can’t help but smile before taking her in his arms and telling her he’s glad she’s okay. Then Miller punches his shoulder, sending a comforting smile Harper’s way, before they move to the unconscious Murphy and grab a hold of him. The guy looks rough, beaten down. Deep wounds marking his face, dried up blood on his forehead.  He’s breathing though, which makes it all alright.

“Seems like carrying unconscious men through the forest is our thing now.” Miller huffs out once they’ve taken a few steps.

Bellamy laughs, shaking his head as he does so, and strengthens his hold on Murphy, hoisting him upwards. Clarke meets his eye as she passes him by, following Octavia back towards camp, and Bellamy duck his head in order to hide his smile.

\---

“I was wrong before you know,” Miller admits from next to him, “about Clarke.”

Bellamy raises his brows in surprise. Miller isn’t someone who admits he’s wrong often. He grins. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Miller nods. “She didn’t have to help us out today. I mean if she really was up to something Harper’s fall and even Murphy’s disappearance would probably have been good for her, you know,  less man to take out.”

Bellamy scoffs, a laugh stuck in his throat. “Less man to take out?”

Miller grins, looking his way. “Maybe a little far fetched, but you never know. She could have been here to do exactly that.”

Bellamy shakes his head, a small smile coming to his lips. “But you don’t think that anymore?”

Miller shakes his head, returning Bellamy’s smile, and it was really hard for Bellamy to not start smiling like an idiot at that answer, to pretend that it didn’t fill him up with joy.

It was becoming harder for him to pretend that anything Clarke related didn’t fill him up with joy anyway.


End file.
